The Great Gorge of Ronda

The bus ride from Sevilla to Ronda (not Rhonda, I spelled it wrong on the previous blog) took less than two hours. When we came near Ronda, we could see range of mountains full of olive trees. Then the bus went up the hill where we could see lines of white houses spreading around it. It was absolutely gorgeous. Still a part of Andalusia, Ronda, which is in the Malaga regions, is a city on two hills divided by a gorge.

We reached the city somewhere around dinner time. On the way to our restaurant, we passed by the bridge (known as Puente Nuevo or new bridge) that connected the two hills and took some night shots. It was a very deep gorge (known as El Tajo), unnerving to look down but beautiful at the same time. The next day, another bright sunny day, we went back to the bridge. The gorge was without a doubt magnificent. We walked down the gorge but not for too far down as we didn't have enough time. From below, I could see the houses that were attached to the gorge and from the top, the area was surrounded by mountains. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

We then visited Plaza de Toros, the oldest bullring in Spain. It was my first time to a bullring. There wasn't any bullfight when we were there. Not that I was looking for it anyway. I had no interest in watching bullfights at all. I think it's very cruel. But the bullring was something to be amazed to. It's very impressive and worth to look at.

Ronda definitely has something to be proud of; its beautiful landscape nature. The gorge and its surrounding gave me reasons to draw a series of long breaths which was relaxing and very calming. I wouldn't mind another visit. The next time I would give it enough time to walk further down towards the bottom of the gorge. I'm sure it will not disappoint me.

Night shot of the Puente Nuevo

More Night Shots of Ronda Town

Puente Nuevo and its nearby scenic view in day time

The amazing views of Ronda's surroundings

Plaza de Toros

More Plaza de Toros

Ronda's colorful town 

The Lovely, Lovely Sevilla

Our journey that started from northern Spain finally reached the southern part of the country. Sevilla, capital of Andalusia, welcomed us with its glorious sunny day. We started out a bit late as we were enjoying too much of the rooftop terrace of our lovely accomodation. We had longer than usual breaksfast there. We took photos there. We rested and relaxed there. It was a lovely terrace.

First up to visit was the Royal Alcazar, also known as Alcazares Reales de Sevilla. Located in the old town of Sevilla, the Alcazar was a real surprise for me. Some parts of the palace had similarities with Granada's Alhambra eg. the carving on walls, the patios, etc, but this Alcazar had one of the most unforgettable garden that I've seen. The garden was a real joy for me. There was a spot near the fountain and surrounded by very tall palm trees where I just sat there doing nothing and enjoyed it. It was very pleasing. And apparently this palace was very famous with wedding couples. It was a Saturday and there were a number of couples and their photographers in action that day. It's not surprising at all as there were many photo spots to take in the palace as if they were from different places. It was a great palace and I had a good time there. I never expected that I would enjoy it better than the Alhambra.

We spent so much time in Alcazar that we had a late lunch. We were too hungry and had to go out from it although we didn't feel like it. After our lunch, we walked the city. Sevilla is a big city and we would have covered places faster if we ride a bike. There were bike rental spots everywhere but we had to register first to rent one and we didn't. So we had no choice but to walk. We only managed to walk up to the area of Torre Del Oro (Gold Tower). It was a very unique octagonal Moorish style tower located along Guadalquivil river. We walked along the river for a while and wanted to go to the other side of the river but gave up on it as we were too tired to walk.

At night, we were very excited because we booked ourselves to watch a flamenco dance. It was my first time watching this dance and probably the first time for everyone else watching there as well. There were two dancers, a singer, and a guitarist. Each of them played a part that made every aspect of this dance very interesting. The dance was very passionate and full of fire. I could see that the dancers took so much passion and energy for every little movement. It was an amazing experience for me to be there to watch it.

The next day, we only had about half a day for Sevilla as we had to go to our next stop, Rhonda. We planned to visit the famous Cathedral and its bell tower, La Giralda, but surprisingly enough the queue to get in was too long and we didn't have time for it. So we just roamed around the Cathedral, had a delicious tapas lunch and went souvenir shopping before taking a bus to Rhonda.

Although it was my second visit, I still think Sevilla is a very fascinating city. The influence of Moorish style on its buildings made Sevilla different from other cities in the northern Spain. I felt that I was transported to a different country. And the food...I can go on and on about the food. I love the Andalusia's speciality such as the gazpacho (cold tomato-based raw vegetable soup) and rabo de toro (Spanish oxtail stew) and I love the churos. I love everything about Sevilla. There's definitely no doubt about it.

Photos by me, HM and JK.

The many features of Sevilla Alcazar

Us Enjoying Sevilla

The Flamenco Dance

The Bell Tower, La Giralda

Windows of La Giralda

Light Fountain in the square near the Cathedral

Waiting for a wedding couple from the Cathedral

Bikes for rent

Madrid

We took bus from Segovia to Madrid. One of us was quite sick and when we reached Madrid bus terminal, we decided to take cabs to our accomodation. I thought the distance was not too far from the terminal and therefore we would get there in no time. But I did not consider the traffic jam. We split into two cabs. The one with me inside reached in about half hour to forty five minutes (I think it's supposed to be about fifteen minutes ride). The other cab was lost, literary. When my friend told the address to the cab driver, he nodded right away and seemed to understand where to go. He even put the address into his GPS. After escaping from traffic jam and into the highway, it was already almost an hour. My friend came to realise that the driver was lost because the road sign on the highway was showing they were on the way back to Segovia. After debating and arguing with the driver, he finally brought them back to the correct address and was still charging triple the price of what my cab was charging me (even though he reset the meter somewhere in the middle of the trip). As far as I remember, they were in the cab for about two hours. My friends on that cab were tired, hungry, angry, felt ripped off and regretted the decision of taking the cab. All of us were very hungry. So we had quite a big dinner somewhere near where we stayed.

In the morning, my sick friend was looking worse. So I let the rest go on with our schedules and I stayed back with her. I needed the free time of not having things to do anyway so it worked fine for me. My friends visited the Royal Palace and had a very fine Paella lunch. They said the palace looked similar to Versailles but better, but Versailles had a much better garden. The Paella lunch, they said, was the best and the most expensive they had ever tried. I, on the other hand, walked around the area where we stayed, near to Tirso de Molina metro station. I have to say though that the area was a bit rough and scary. I don't know whether it was just me because a friend told me to be very careful in Madrid so I became very conscious of my surroundings. To make matters worse, I got lost. So I went into a four star hotel hoping for a direction and a map but the person in the reception was not friendly and I was out of the hotel with nothing. Luckily, I found my way back to Tirso de Molina station. Phew!

All of us met up for a dinner and a little bit of shopping in Puerta del Sol (metro: Sol). This is the heart of Madrid. It was quite a busy night, full of people out and about. I enjoyed the atmosphere. It did feel like somewhere in Granada but I wasn't sure where exactly. But it was good. And I did some shopping myself.

The next morning, we went to Museo del Prado, which was full of fine art collections. This was where I was first introduced to Goya's collections. I spent quite a while looking at them and trying to understand and appreciate them. There were many things to look at in this museum so you have to be prepared and know what to see before you go inside. We spent about half a day there, just in time for lunch. It's just not possible to look at everything in one day, let alone half a day. After lunch we got back to our hotel, packed our things up and got ready to the train station (Atocha station) where we took a night train to Sevilla.

As the capital city of and the largest city in Spain, Madrid was big, modern, busy and full of energy. Like other big cities, it was also rough and unfriendly. I was actually quite dissapointed with it. I guess I was expecting something more than what I saw. Or maybe two days were not enough to feel the city. I don't know, really. I think I should give it a second chance and come back to this city. Let's see if I change my mind.

Our dinner in Madrid

The Clock Tower at Puerta del Sol

The square at Puerta del Sol

I took the photo of this bear statue without realising that this was Madrid's emblem and a favourite meeting place at Puerta del Sol

Tourist bus is common here at Puerta del Sol

Shopping at Puerta del Sol

On the way to the Museo del Prado, people were cleaning statues to be displayed 

Entrance of Museo del Prado

An artist in action in Museo del Prado

Atocha Station, Madrid

Segovia's Charms

After a deliciously authentic dinner the night before (Segovia's infamous roast suckling pig was of course on the menu) and a good night's sleep, we were ready to start the day in Segovia's old town. Situated on a high ground, the old town is full of narrow and twisting cobbled streets. Segovia's old town is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The weather was really great that day. We walked down the hill to visit the first place in our itinerary, church of Vera Cruz. We walked past the Alcazar at the top of the hill and the church, which is at the bottom of the hill, could be clearly seen from there. It looked like a long walk down but it only took about 10-15 minutes. The church was built by the Knights Templar and was said to once housed a fragment of true cross. The shape of the church is unusually circular, not like the shape of churches that I've seen before. Inside, it was very serene. I just sat inside enjoying the peacefulness.

We then walked back and visited the Alcazar. I wasn't feeling well and therefore I didn't really take much notice of what I saw. Looking up from the church of Vera Cruz, the Alcazar stands tall on top of the hill. From the outside, the building looks like the typical castle that is used in many of Disney stories.

The last thing we visited in Segovia was the Aqueduct. This is a must see in Segovia. From what I understand, the aqueduct was used to control water flow that was coming in to the town. It's probably equivalent to the dams or canals these days. It was how the Roman built it in the old days. I can't say that I understand how it was used exactly looking at the way it's located right in the middle of the old town. Probably there wasn't a town there before. But it's a great monument stretching around the old town of Segovia. Unfortunately, we only had limited time to check out one site of it. I think it's too beautiful to be what it is, you know, a water passage. I guess that's how people built things in the old days: beautiful and functional at the same time. A local cab driver was obviously very proud of this monument. He even tried to explain to us about it in Spanish knowing that we couldn't speak the language. But I could tell from his tone that he was very proud of the Aqueduct.

It was again another quick day for us but it was definitely worth coming to Segovia. It's a beautiful town with a lot of characters. And the Aqueduct is astonishingly beautiful and not to be missed.

Segovia's Cathedral

Sunlight's reflection

Baskets for sale

We're ready to start the day at Segovia

The amazing aqueduct

Close up on aqueduct

The church of Vera Cruz

The Alcazar

I Walked on Ice

I just came back from my dentist today. As much as I wanted to stay at home, away from the cold, I had a dentist appointment that I had to attend in the morning. As I walked out my apartement, what I saw immediately was the snow had gone hard and it's not as beautiful as it looked yesterday. When it was snowing yesterday, the snow was really soft, flaky and easy to walk. This morning the flakes changed to this hard ice, something like the ice in ice skating rinks but with uneven surface. If you have ice skated before then you know how very slippery it is to walk the rink with normal shoes. Now imagine the skating rink is moved to road pavements and add the uneven surface to them. If you're not careful enough your backside could easily hit the ground. So you can imagine how hard it is to walk it. The normally ten minutes walk took me about half hour to walk. And along the way, I almost fell down a couple of times.

I'm still learning about the different types of ice after snow. Beside the hard ice there were two other types that I came across today such as the ice slush and ice crust. If you ask me which one is better I'd probably have a hard time answering because I prefer none. The ice slush is like, you know, slush. It's watery and wet, and when mixed with the debris of the roads it looks kind of brownishy and it does not look pretty at all. The ice crust probably is safer to walk as it's not as slippery as the hard ice and it's not as wet as the slush. But as I said before I prefer none. Anyway, I hope I'm not boring you with the different types of snow. I just find it fascinating learning about this new stuff.

The road to my dentist - I was resting here and taking photo at the same time :)

It's Snowing in London!

Living in London has its varieties. One of them is the snow at winter times. I've been living here for two years but this is the first time I saw the snow this thick. It was about 10cm thick in the morning and it's been snowing non-stop that in a local newspaper it's said that it has reached about 17.5cm deep. The newspaper also mentioned that this blizzard has caused the thickest snow in London since 1964.

The bizzare thing about the snow in London is that the city is incapable of coping with it. Two years ago when it was snowing for 4cm of depth, most of the tube lines were not working resulting in people flocking buses to work. I myself spent almost 2 hours reaching office. And of course, it was not a nice experience as I had to queue for a long time in the bus stop and when I managed to get a bus I had to squeeze myself to get into it with everybody else. This time, with 17.5cm of depth, I would expect it to get worse and it did. A lot of people were left stranded in the middle of going to work, some made it to office after a few hours and some others, who couldn't make it to office, went back home and tried to work from home. What happened with the public transportation? Some tube lines are either cancelled, partly suspended or with delays. Some buses were out of service due to road safety. In short, London is in a halt. You would have never thought that being a city used to wintry weather, London is having difficulty with its infrastructures whenever there is snow. And it's the sad truth. To its defense, London doesn't always experience snow in winter, especially one like this is very rare. That's probably why the infrastructures were not built to deal with it.

But it's not all bad news. I went out to walk in my neighbourhood and people were out and about, taking photos, making snowman, and in the park nearby people were sledging, snowboarding or just enjoying the snow. Dogs were obviously happy in the park. They were running around eating snow and scrubbing their faces to the snow. I also went out to Tower Bridge to take some photos of the city in white. Luckily the tube were working okay from my home to Tower Hill station and back. And so here are some photos I took today. Enjoy!

The view from my balcony

Another view from the balcony

On the way to the park - a post box covered with snow

This is an unusual sight - the park had a number of visitors today

On one side of the park with the pond

Another View of the park

Walking to The Tower Bridge

The Tower Pier and Tower Bridge

The City Hall

The Seats near Tower of London overlooking the Tower Bridge